Meronymy

Not to be confused with metonymy or meronomy.

Meronymy (from Greek μέρος meros, "part" and ὄνομα onoma, "name") is a semantic relation specific to linguistics, distinct from the similar meronomy. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. That is,

“X” is a meronym of “Y” if Xs are parts of Y(s), or

“X” is a meronym of “Y” if Xs are members of Y(s).

For example, "finger" is a meronym of "hand" because a finger is part of a hand. Similarly, "wheels" is a meronym of "automobile".

Meronymy is the opposite of holonymy. A closely related concept is that of mereology, which specifically deals with part/whole relations and is used in logic. It is formally expressed in terms of first-order logic. A meronymy can also be considered a partial order.

A meronym means part of a whole. A word denoting a subset of what another word denotes is a hyponym.

In knowledge representation languages, meronymy is often expressed as "part-of".

External links

Online source for English language

Everything2 entry

Lexicography

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Meronymy

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